I teach my high school students that there are only two ways to absolutely prevent pregnancy and STIs. Abstinence and Masturbation. I tell them repeatedly not to have sex unless they want to take that step. We talk about the emotional complications and physical dangers of sex. We also talk about the immense potential physical pleasure and connection.

The table above gives a breakdown of baseline (start of study) behaviors and demographics. 23.4% of participants already had penile-vaginal sex when the study began, 12% had sex within 3 months prior to the study. Of that 12%, 67.1% of those kids used condoms effectively. This is before any intervention. Interesting, no? We often forget that kids learn about sex outside of school.

This falls under fair use. Public education. Not for profit.

The next table shows follow-up results. Researchers went back and checked with participants about their sexual activity since the interventions. Here is a quick and dirty explanation of the groups:

Health promotion control: Encouraged healthier living. Don’t smoke, etc. Why is this group the control? To make sure simply being in a group wasn’t the reason for behavior change (Hawthorne effect.)

Over time, the rates for sexual intercourse go up. Not surprising as the participants aged into sexual maturity. Here is the tidbit that everyone is going apeshit over: rates for ever having sexual intercourse were consistently lowest in the “abstinence” group. The difference is dramatic (6 months: abstinence lowest at 8.7% and safer sex highest at 23.9%) until 12 months when the numbers begin to level out among groups, though the safer sex group still blazes the high numbers path.

Overall, the abstinence group sees the lowest reported numbers of sexual risk taking. Condom use rates were similar among all the groups, though I want to point out what the researchers mean with the two categories.

Had unprotected sex: 1 or more intercourse acts sans condom. It only takes one reported time to be in that category.

Consistent condom use: Every. Single. Time.

For reference, here is the flow chart used my researchers to explain the check-ins.

This falls under fair use. Public education. Not for profit.

What We’ve Learned

Encouraging young (African American technically, but really all) adolescents to wait to have sex until they’re ready may be a good thing. Abstinence Only Until Marriage is still bullshit. I still advocate for open discussions on masturbation. The media hypes research beyond recognition. Class dismissed.